Roger Federer may have lost his top seeding but don’t think for a minute he doesn’t have a trump card up his sleeve at the US Open.
Federer, who has surrendered his world No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal, is the four-time defending champion in the final Grand Slam of the season which begins today.
“I know how to enter Grand Slams,” second-seeded Federer said on Saturday. “I know how to enter the US Open and what it takes to win. That’s a huge advantage I have.”
“I come here as the defending champion so I always have great feelings about this place,” he said.
Federer said he will draw on his enormous success at Flushing Meadows in the past to salvage something from a disappointing season.
Nadal has never made it past the quarter-finals at the US Open and goes into the major as the top seed for the first time in his career.
“I believe it is an advantage if you know how to win a US Open,” Federer said. “It is a tough tournament to win.
“Rafa has never been beyond the fourth round so that is definitely the advantage that I carry,” he said.
Federer says not being the top seed takes some of the pressure off him. His disappointing year was underscored when he lost the No. 1 ranking which he had held for a record 237 weeks.
“For five years I was expected to win every tournament,” Federer said. “So now it changes a little bit. Rafa will feel what I had to feel for a very long time.”
“Maybe it is nice to go into a Grand Slam for a change not having No. 1 next to me. It should be interesting,” he said.
“Clear favorite?” Federer said of Nadal. “I don’t know about that. I am going to concentrate on what I can really control. And that is my section of the draw, trying to control all the players. We will see how it goes.”
In the women’s singles Jelena Jankovic goes into the tournament knowing that in order to capture her first Grand Slam title she needs to raise her game to the next level when it counts the most.
The Serbian has yet to reach a final in the 20 Grand Slam appearances and despite doing well in just about every tournament this year she only has one win on her resume.
She blames that in part on injuries.
“I am working very hard and some of the things don’t happen overnight,” she said. “You can’t get your endurance and your strength back in a few days. I will keep working hard and we will see what happens.”
Jankovic has reached the quarter-finals or better in 14 of 15 tournaments this year and was rewarded for her consistent play earlier this month when she earned the world No. 1 ranking.
But it was a short stay at the top as Ivanovic quickly claimed it back.
Jankovic said tennis recently became the No. 1 sport in Serbia thanks to the success of players like her, Ivanovic and men’s No. 3 Novak Djokovic.
“Believe it or not tennis is the most popular sport in Serbia,” Jankovic said. “That was never the case before. We didn’t have a tradition of producing great tennis players.”
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